Orla Kiely is the perfect example. The Irish designer has lent her neo-70s palette to much more than clothing. Not only does her label also now offer furniture and housewares, her non-fashion collaborations include Apple laptop cases, Brita reusable bottles, boxes for Butler's chocolate, and more.

The most recent lovechild on the list is an eco-friendly car with Citroën, the French automobile manufacturer, to be released next month.

The DS3 by Orla Kiely collection demonstrates the designer's fresh, graphic touch through her olive acorn design painted onto the exterior, the colored and hand-stitched headrests in her signature flower pattern for the interior, and even acorn print carpet mats. This edition, limited to 500 cars, took over six months to design.

But more importantly, the car is driven by a fuel and CO2-efficient diesel engine, Ms Kiely told us in a recent interview.

"We made very detailed efforts to reduce our carbon footprint last year. An obvious solution was to buy a low CO2 City car and the latest engine in the DS3 meant we were able to do this without compromising our needs for a stylish, fun car," she said, adding that she "would love to work on the next generation of electric cars. Without a doubt, an Orla Kiely car needs to respect the environment."

Photo: Orla Kiely for Citroën

How close are fashion and car design, you ponder? The two aren't that far-fetched, the designer believes. "The world of cars and fashion are not that far apart. To me it was about thinking about the consumer. I wanted to consider thoroughly what my customer would respond to and value. That is why we started with the details and worked our way up from there. Working with a brand new modern car design like the Citroen DS3 was truly exciting," she explained.

Photo: Orla Kiely for Citroën

This makes us wonder what other sort of collaborations there could be. We'd personally love to own a Givenchy toothbrush or a Gareth Pugh toaster. In the meantime, we can only hope that other designers try to reduce their environmental effects – and their shoppers' – too.

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